A survey of using role play technique on learning speaking skills for grade 10 students at quang xuong 2 high school thanh hoa province

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A SURVEY OF USING ROLE-PLAY TECHNIQUE ON LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT QUANG XUONG HIGH SCHOOL – THANH HOA PROVINCE KHẢO SÁT VIỆC SỬ DỤNG KỸ NĂNG ĐÓNG VAI TRONG HỌC KĨ NĂNG NÓI ĐỐI VỚI HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT QUẢNG XƯƠNG – TỈNH THANH HÓA Student: NGUYEN HUYEN ANH Student code: 621265 Major: ENGLISH Supervisor: NGUYEN THI THUY LAN, M.A HaNoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A survey of using role - play technique on learning speaking skills for Grade 10 students at Quang Xuong High School – Thanh Hoa Province” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis HaNoi, 2021 Nguyen Huyen Anh Approved by SUPERVISOR i TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABSTRACT vi LIST OF ABBREVIATION vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY RESEARCH QUESTIONS SCOPE OF THE STUDY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY DESIGN OF THE STUDY PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES 1.1.1 Review of previous research in Vietnam 1.1.2 Review of previous research in the World 1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BA-CKGROUND 1.2.1 Overview of Speaking skills 1.2.1.1 Definition of speaking skills ii 1.2.1.2 The components of speaking 1.2.1.3 Activities to improve speaking classes 13 1.2.2 Overview of Role - play 15 1.2.2.1 Definition of role - play 15 1.2.2.2 The steps for role - play activity 16 1.2.2.3 Advantages of using role - play in learning speaking skills 20 1.2.2.4 The difficulties of using role - play technique 21 1.3 SUMMARY 23 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 24 2.1 RESEARCH GOVERNING ORIENTATION 24 2.2 RESEARCH METHODS 24 2.2.1 Major method(s) 24 2.2.2 Research setting/context 25 2.2.3 Data collection 25 2.2.4 Data analysis 28 2.3 SUMMARY 29 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30 3.1 STUDENTS' PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE OF ROLE PLAY IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS 30 3.1.1 Students' perception of role play in learning speaking skills 30 3.1.2 Students' attitude of role play in learning speaking skills 37 3.2 DIFFICULTIES OF STUDENTS WHEN PARTICIPATING IN ROLEPLAYING ACTIVITIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS 39 iii 3.3 SUMMARY 40 PART III: CONCLUSION 42 RECAPITULATION 42 CONCLUDING REMARKS 43 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 45 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 45 REFERENCES i APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENT iii APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS vii APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW FOR STUDENT viii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the course of my research, I have received contributions and support from many people First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy Lan M.A for her enthusiastic and useful guidance, helpful and insightful comments This thesis would not have been possible without her constant support and encouragement Secondly, I would like to thank all of the teachers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages - Vietnam National Academy of Agriculture for imparting useful knowledge and helping me during my study and research Next, I would like to express my special thanks to teacher Do Thi Thuy, Ms Vu Thi Thieu, who teaches English and all students in grades 10C1, 10C9 of Quang Xuong High School who participated in answering questionnaires and interviews for me to complete this thesis In the process of practicing and completing the thesis, I have tried my best, but I cannot avoid shortcomings I look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions to improve this thesis Last but not least, I would like to give a special thanks to my family, friends and so many others, who have always supported and loved me throughout the process of complete my research! Nguyen Huyen Anh v ABSTRACT Among four skills namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing, learners have favored speaking because it is used to communicate with people However, students still have been faced with difficulties in learning speaking skills Therefore, the research was carried out with the aim of providing techniques and methods to learn speaking skills better, specifically here applying role - playing skills to help increase students' interest in learning to speak When applying role - play, students are placed in an interesting talking environment, promoting more creative imagination, thereby igniting interest and helping students talk as much as possible The data used for analysis in this study are mainly collected through survey questionnaires, through observations of two classes with teachers who have applied this activity and through face - to - face interviews The thesis has mentioned the difficulties when students learn to speak and how useful after applying the skill of role - playing One of the outstanding results from the data analysis is that the students of Quang Xuong High School are very interested in learning to speak when applying the role - play method vi LIST OF ABBREVIATION N: Number Ss: Students Ts: Teachers vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables of students'questionnaire analysis Table 2.1: Criteria for judging the degree of problems 29 Table 2.2: Students' interest in English speaking skills 30 Table 2.3: Role - play activities in speaking are important to students 30 Table 2.4: Students' understanding of the definition of role - play 31 Table 2.5: Students' opinions on the steps to role - play 33 Table 2.6: The benefits for students when teachers apply role - play activities 34 Table 2.7: Descriptive Statistics: Students' opinions when participating in role - play activities 37 Table 2.8: Difficulties students face when participating in role- play 39 Figure of students'questionnaire analysis Figure 2.1: Applying role - play activities in learning speaking 32 Figure 2.2: Students’ improve their English speaking skills 35 viii PART I: INTRODUCTION RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY In today's world, English has become a language of international communication English is really the most important language in the world, English is spread anytime, anywhere and is the official language of over 53 countries and territories However, For the education of English to achieve success, the four skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, should be integrated in the most efficient way In the industrial era 4.0, almost all industries of commerce, healthcare, media, tourism, are using English to communicate In most of the meetings, forums and exchanges of work, knowledge and experience in the world, this international language is used as a bridge So, English plays an extremely important role, it is not only a communication tool between people, but also creates opportunities for advancement for those who are working, employees who are working in enterprises foreign countries or joint ventures with foreign countries and especially it helps people keep up with the progress in the modern technology era But one thing cannot be denied that using English for speaking is not simple since learners have to master several important elements of English such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension In fact, students can master the rules of grammar, but the use of English fluently to communicate is still very modest; students are still very afraid of using English and there are still many difficulties and obstacles that hinder students for many different objective and subjective reasons, especially high school students - the highest level of general education pine Lack of confidence when speaking English in front of a crowd is also a major reason that students in these two classes encounter, with 42 students saying they lack confidence Students tend to feel nervous when presenting in front of an audience Some students may not want to participate and others may feel apprehensive In this question, there are 28 students who think that their difficulty is that the topic in each role-playing organization is not really interesting, the topics, characters or situations given are boring, making them not serious about the role they play This shows that bringing up the topic of characters and situations when the organization plays the role is also an important choice in the script preparation step The situation presented is too difficult, not suitable for students' ability is also the main reason for 35 students in two classes They can't understand the instructions about the character they play, or the situation they need to imagine, which leads to them not being able to speak in each role The reason may be that the students in the two classes not have good English ability, they have not had a high investment in their English learning In stage 2, after interviewing two English teachers at this school, they all said that the biggest difficulty most students face is lack of vocabulary leading to unsuccessful role - playing In the current classrooms in the school, only a few students have a rich vocabulary, the rest of the students have limited vocabulary Part of the reason may be that they don't really focus on communication, but always learn in the traditional way, which is to firmly grasp the grammar structure and neglect to improve their vocabulary 3.3 SUMMARY In summary, after the survey, the researcher collected the results, raw data and the opinions in the interview were recorded, then the researcher analyzed the results 40 from 80 grade 10 students at Quang Xuong High School and Quang Xuong High School Statistically summarized percentages and mean values in the tables and graphs above First, the researcher can find that about half of the total number of students participating in the study are aware of and understand the importance of role - playing in speaking, so their attitude towards the activity is very important The action is also serious when the teacher organizes this activity In general, most students in both grades have difficulty participating in role - playing However, the main difficulties are that students lack vocabulary and grammar, so they have many difficulties such as not being confident enough, and being afraid to speak in front of people etc Therefore, there are still a few students who feel they are not improving with the role play 41 PART III: CONCLUSION RECAPITULATION Initially, this study aims to find the perception about the importance of roleplay to 10th Graders at Quang Xuong High School and to find the attitudes of 10th Graders at Quang Xuong High School towards role - play when learning speaking skills Then it will investigate the difficulties faced by students when using roleplay in learning speaking skills For the purpose of the study, interview questions and questionnaires were used to collect necessary information Research results show that In fact, they are aware of the importance of role - playing methods and have a serious attitude when teachers apply role-play in speaking, sometimes they have difficulty using this activity In which, the difficulty that many students face the most is not having enough vocabulary to express what they want, the main reason is that students are really poor in vocabulary and the next difficulty is that students not have enough vocabulary There are many opportunities to practice speaking English in front of the class, thus leading to many students not being confident when speaking English with others Regarding English learning methods, according to the survey, most of the 10th grade English teachers here have applied role - playing activities in teaching They also acknowledge the usefulness of role - play Role - play can help students boost their confidence as well as their imagination and creativity Moreover, it not only helps students to use English naturally, but also can talk about daily life topics that students are interested in However, most students have difficulty with their confidence and vocabulary They seem to have a hard time expressing their personality confidently In the teacher interview, after observing the students they said that the students showed an interest in participating in the role - play activities and their interest in speaking also seemed to increase It can be concluded that communication methods in general and 42 role - playing activities in particular should be used frequently in teaching English because of its effectiveness in increasing students' interest in learning to speak Hopefully the role play will be more useful and will be applied more and more often CONCLUDING REMARKS There were two research questions raised during the process of data analysis From data collected and analyzed, in the above từ parts, these research questions can be answered For the question the perception and attitude of 10th Graders at Quang Xuong High School about applying role - play activities in the speaking classes By analyzing the information in questionnaires and interviewing, the researcher can realize that students here at Quang Xuong High School are really interested in learning to speak They are aware that speaking is an important skill making great contributions to the success in learning English First, students realize that roleplaying is very important in learning to speak English They know that when applying role - play activities, they can develop their imagination and creativity, and can use language freely, and they have more opportunities to speak English than in traditional lessons system Second, more than half of the students understood correctly and sufficiently about the basic definition of role - play, in addition, about 50% of students understood correctly the steps of role - play This shows that students have also mastered the types of role - play and the steps to perform it Third, most students have a serious attitude to role - play when teachers assign tasks From the survey, most students at least once have been assigned by the teacher to role - play another character or any other situation Only a small number of 43 students have not yet been role - played So maybe when students are assigned a role by the teacher they always try to take it seriously For the question difficulties when using role - play in learning speaking skills to 10th Graders at Quang Xuong High School First, a lot of students lack the vocabulary that makes it impossible to express what the character they play wants to say This is most common among second graders and accounts for 55% of the total students The reason may be that students have not found the best method to improve vocabulary, or they may learn first and forget later, leading to poor vocabulary Second, the next difficulty that most students have is lack of confidence when speaking, both in front of the class and when communicating privately with friends or teachers So they don't have confidence to play the character they are taking on, leading to the role - playing may not be successful This difficulty accounts for more than 50% of the surveyed students Third, Students are not interested in the topic given by the teacher, so they don't pay attention to the activity going on, or if when the students are being role played they are not interested in the character or situation they are taking on responsibility, leading to an unsuccessful role - playing activity Last, the next difficulty is that the topic given each hour of speaking class is too difficult for students' speaking ability, this may be from the main reason that students lack vocabulary and basic knowledge leading to more 40% of students rated that the topics in the textbook or the topic given by the teacher were too difficult for their ability 44 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY Despite the fact that the study was carried out to the best of the researcher's abilities, limitations were unavoidable Firstly, because of the limited of time, the researcher can interview some teachers and students about applying roleplay activities, there are some other teachers and a lot of students can not have a chance to express their opinion Therefore, the results are only true for a small number of 10th graders at Quang Xuong High School, not the whole school Next, the research needs to experiment in reality It would be better to be able to observe the class during speaking time to get more objective results In other words, the researcher needs to really teach some classes that apply role - play activities Finally, the study would be more profound if the researcher has perfectly good knowledge about role - play RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Hopefully, the mentioned limitations will help other researchers have some useful experiences in their further related studies First of all, the researchers should enlarge the amount of research participants Based on the results concluded above, the researcher proposes that: The more research participants' answers researchers collect the more reliable results they get For example, further studies can involve more teachers and students in an interview so that they can get more information about their research participants' attitude toward the research object Next, even though the effectiveness of role - play, applying it may get some difficulties It would be better if the researchers added on how to overcome the difficulties that students will face when applying the role - playing activity It is hoped that these suggestions will help further researchers have a better experience 45 for their studies In brief, though the thesis contains certain limitations, it has been completed with greatest efforts, therefore, sympathetic comments and suggestions are highly appreciated 46 REFERENCES In Vietnam: Le, Dinh Mai Thao (2013) Applying role - play in increasing student’ interest in learning speaking to grade 11 students at Lai Vung High school” At Aboard: Arham R, (2016) The Use of Role Play to Improve Teaching Speaking Brown, Gillian and Yule, George (1999) Teaching the spoken Language: Cambridge University Press Burns & Joyce (1997) Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Gill, P J (1980) The Instructional Design Library: Vol 32 Role Playing New York: Cornell University, (p.27 & 55) Joanna Budden, (2004), Role Play: British Council Teaching English Harmer, J (2005) The Practice of English Language Teaching Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited Kayi, Hayriye (2006) Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language The Internet TESL Journal, 12 Kochhar S.K (1985) Methods and Techniques of Teaching: Sterling Publishers Private: New Delhi Kusnierek, A (2015) Developing students' speaking skills through role - play Leszno, Poland: Teacher training College 10 Livingstone, C (1983) Role play in language learning: Harlow Longman (p.94) i 11 Maria A Kodotchigova, (2001) Role Play in Teaching Culture: Six Quick Steps for Classroom Implementation 12 Ments, V M (1999) The Effective Use of Role – play Practical Techniques for Improving Learning Second edition, Londot: Kogan (p.16) 14 McDonough, J., and Shaw, C (2003) Materials and methods in ELT 2nd ed Maine: Blackwell Publishing 15 Nunan, D (2003) Practical English Language Teaching International Edition: McGraw-Hill, Singapore, (p.88) 16 Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2009:414) 17 Paul Procter, (1995) Cambridge International Dictionary of English 18 Putri, H F (Wednesday, June 2010) The Importance of Vocabulary in English Learning English Education Program Ibn Khaldun University Bogor, Java Occidental, Indonesia 19 Rickheit, Gert and Strohner, Hans (2008) Handbook of Communication Competence Germany 20 Sano, M (1989) Speaking Shidou to Dramatization Speaking Instruction and Dramatization Eigo-Kyouiku: The English Teachers’ Magazine October, 24–25 21 Syakur (1987) Language Testing and Evaluation Surakarta: Sebelas Maret University Press 22 Ur, Penny (1991) A Course in Language Teaching: Cambridge University Press ii APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENT BẢNG CÂU HỎI VÀ CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN CHO GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH Chào bạn, thực đề tài nghiên cứu: “Khảo việc sử dụng kỹ đóng vai việc học kĩ nói học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Quảng Xương – Thanh Hóa” Tất thông tin mà bạn cung cấp mang tính khách quan sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu Do mong bạn trả lời câu hỏi theo quan điểm cá nhân Bạn trả lời câu hỏi cách đánh dấu X vào ô tương ứng Bạn học sinh lớp: _ Nam Nữ Mức độ yêu thích bạn học kĩ nói tiếng anh nào?  Rất thích  Thích  Bình thường  Khơng thích Bạn nghĩ áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai học mơn nói có quan trọng không?  Rất quan trọng  Quan trọng  Khá quan trọng  Không quan trọng Bạn hiểu định nghĩa hoạt động đóng vai?  Đóng vai hoạt động vận dụng kỹ nói mà qua người nói tự đặt vào vị trí người khác thời gian ngắn  Đóng vai hoạt động vận dụng kỹ nói mà qua người nói vị trí tự đặt vào tình tưởng tượng thời gian ngắn iii  Hoạt động đóng vai việc diễn xuất vai diễn mà đảm nhiệm  Đóng vai hoạt động vận dụng kỹ nói mà qua người nói tự đặt vào vị trí người khác vị trí tự đặt vào tình tưởng tượng thời gian ngắn Thầy (cô) bạn có thường áp dụng kĩ đóng vai học mơn nói khơng?  Thường xun  Thỉnh thoảng  Hiếm  Không Trong học mơn nói, bạn có thường tham gia trực tiếp hoạt động đóng vai khơng?  Thường xun  Thỉnh thoảng  Hiếm  Không Bạn thường thực nhập vai theo bước sau đây?  Đưa kịch  Thiết kế nhân vật  Chuẩn bị lời thoại Chuẩn bị tình  Phân vai  Nhập vai  Thiết kế nhân vật  Đưa kịch  Chuẩn bị lời thoại  Chuẩn bị tình  Phân vai  Nhập vai  Chuẩn bị lời thoại  Thiết kế nhân vật  Đưa kịch  Chuẩn bị tình  Phân vai  Nhập vai Dưới số khẳng định phương pháp đóng vai bày tỏ quan điểm tham gia hoạt động đóng vai Bạn đánh dấu X vào ô thể mức độ phù hợp với thân iv Nội dung Hồn tồn khơng đồng ý Khơng đồng ý Trung lập Đồng ý Hồn tồn đồng ý Q1 Các chủ đề mà giáo viên đưa tổ chức hoạt động đóng vai thân thuộc phù hợp Q2 Lời hướng dẫn giáo viên tổ chức hoạt động đóng vai chi tiết, dễ hiểu Q3 Khi tham gia nhập vai hội nói tiếng Anh bạn tăng lên nhiều Q4 Khi định nhập vai, bạn ln hồn thành vai diễn cách nghiêm túc Q5 Bạn hứng thú với nhân vật tình nhập vai v Theo bạn, việc áp dụng kỹ đóng vai học mơn nói đem lại lợi ích gì? Dưới lợi ích liệt kê bạn tích X vào hiệu cho (Có thể chọn nhiều đáp án)  Có thể phát huy trí tưởng tượng khả sáng tạo trở thành người khác  Có thể sử dụng ngơn ngữ cách tự do, từ làm cho việc học ngơn ngữ trở nên tự nhiên  Có hội để nói đề tài quen thuộc nói tiếng Anh nhiều học  Tất lợi ích  Lợi ích khác (vui lịng ghi rõ lợi ích): ………………………………… Dưới số khó khăn áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai, bạn đánh dấu X vào khó khăn bạn thường gặp phải (Có thể chọn nhiều đáp án)  Khơng đủ tự tin để thể vai diễn trước lớp  Khơng có đủ vốn từ vựng để diễn đạt nhân vật đóng muốn nói  Khơng có hứng thú vời đề tài đưa  Tình đưa q khó, khơng đủ khả để diễn đạt  Khó khăn khác (vui lịng ghi rõ khó khăn): ……………………… 10 Sau tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, khả nói tiếng Anh em có cải thiện khơng?  Có nhiều  Có  Có  Không vi APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS Interview for teachers (Mục vấn dành cho giáo viên) Thầy/ Cơ có thường áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai mơn học nói cho học sinh khơng? Thầy/ Cơ cho lợi ích áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai gì? Khi Thầy/ Cơ tổ chức hoạt động đóng vai học mơn nói học sinh có thật hứng thú với vai diễn mà họ đảm nhiệm không? Theo quan sát Thầy/ Cô học sinh áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai học nói, học sinh thường gặp khó khăn gì? Theo quan sát Thầy/ Cơ học sinh áp dụng hoạt động đóng vai học nói, khả nói học sinh có cải thiện khơng? vii APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS Interview for students (Mục vấn dành cho học sinh) Bạn thấy kĩ nói mức độ nào? Bạn có thường Thầy (Cơ) cho tham gia trực tiếp hoạt động đóng vai khơng? Khi tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, bạn có hứng thú với vai diễn tình giáo viên đưa ra? Khi tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, bạn có thấy hứng thú học mơn nói khơng? Sau tham gia vào hoạt động đóng vai, khả nói tiếng Anh bạn có cải thiện khơng? Cụ thể cải thiện nào? viii